The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 294

MACARIUS, ST., a hermit of the Thebad, where he spent 60 years of a life of solitude and austerity (300-390). Festival, January 13.

MACARONI, a fine wheaten paste made into long thin tubes, and manufactured in Italy and the S. of France.

MACa.s.sAR, southern portion and chief town (20) at SW. corner of Celebes; exports coffee, spices, timber, and "Maca.s.sar" oil.

MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, LORD, essayist and historian, born at Rothley Temple, Leicesters.h.i.+re, son of Zachary Macaulay the philanthropist, and so of Scottish descent; graduated at Cambridge 1822, proving a brilliant debater in the Union, and became Fellow of Trinity 1824; called to the bar 1826, he preferred to follow literature, having already gained a footing by some poems in _Knight's Quarterly_ and by his essay on "Milton" in the _Edinburgh Review_ (1825); in 1830 he entered Parliament for a pocket-borough, took an honourable part in the Reform debates, and in the new Parliament sat for Leeds; his family were now in straitened circ.u.mstances, and to be able to help them he went out to India as legal adviser to the Supreme Council; to his credit chiefly belongs the Indian Penal Code; returning in 1838, he represented Edinburgh in the Commons with five years' interval till 1856; the "Lays of Ancient Rome" appeared in 1842, his collected "Essays" in 1843, two years later he ceased writing for the _Edinburgh;_ he was now working hard at his "History," of which the first two volumes attained a quite unprecedented success in 1848; next year he was chosen Lord Rector of Glasgow University; 1855 saw the third and fourth volumes of his "History"; in 1857 he was made a peer, and many other honours were showered upon him; with a tendency to too much declamation in style, a point of view not free from bias, and a lack of depth and modesty in his thinking, he yet attained a remarkable amount and variety of knowledge, great intellectual energy, and unrivalled lucidity in narration (1800-1859).

MACBETH, a thane of the north of Scotland who, by a.s.sa.s.sination of King Duncan, became king; reigned 17 years, but his right was disputed by Malcolm, Duncan's son, and he was defeated by him and fell at Lumphanan, December 5, 1056.

MACCABEES, a body of Jewish patriots, followers of Judas Maccabaeus, who in 2nd century B.C. and in the interest of the Jewish faith withstood the oppression of Syria and held their own for a goodly number of years against not only the foreign yoke that oppressed them, but against the h.e.l.lenising corruption of their faith at home.

MACCABEES, BOOKS OF, two books of the Apocrypha which give, the first, an account of the heroic struggle which the Maccabees maintained from 175 to 135 B.C. against the kings of Syria, and the second, of an intercalary period of Jewish history from 175 to 160 B.C., much of it of legendary unreliable matter; besides these two a third and a fourth of a still more apocryphal character are extant.

M'CARTHY, JUSTIN, writer and politician, began life as a journalist; is the author of a "History of Our Own Times" and a "History of the Four Georges," as well as a number of novels; represents North Longford in Parliament; _b_. 1830.

M'CHEYNE, ROBERT MURRAY, the subject of a well-known memoir by Andrew Bonar, was born in Edinburgh, educated at the university there, and was minister of St. Peter's, Dundee, from 1836 till his death; he is esteemed a saint by pious evangelical people, by whom the memoirs of him are much prized (1813-1843).

M'CLELLAN, American general, born in Philadelphia; served in the Mexican War, and in the War of Secession, eventually as commander-in-chief; was author of military engineering works (1826-1882).

MACCLESFIELD (36), Ches.h.i.+re manufacturing town on the Bollin, 15 m.

S. of Manchester; has a 13th-century church, and a grammar-school founded by Edward VI.; its staple industry is silk manufactures; there are breweries, and mining and quarrying near.

MACCLINTOCK, Arctic navigator, born at Dundalk; sent out by Lady Franklin to discover the fate of Sir John and his crew; wrote an account of the voyage (1819-1891).

M'CLURE, Arctic navigator, born in Wexford; went out in search of Franklin, and discovered the North-West Pa.s.sage in 1850 (1807-1873).

M'CRIE, THOMAS, a Scotch seceder, born in Dunse; was minister in Edinburgh; author of the "Life of John Knox," published in 1812; defended the Covenanters against Scott; he was a man of dignified military presence (1772-1835).

M'CULLOCH, HORATIO, a Scottish landscape-painter, born in Glasgow; was distinguished for his Highland landscapes (1806-1867).

M'CULLOCH, JOHN RAMSEY, political economist, born in Isle of Whithorn; contributed to the _Scotsman_ and _Edinburgh Review;_ wrote "Principles of Political Economy," and edited Dictionaries of Commerce and Geography (1789-1864).

MACCUNN, HAMISH, Scottish composer, born at Greenock; entered the Royal College of Music in 1883, and became junior professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy; his fertility in melody and mastery of the orchestra are devoted to music of strong national characteristics, as his overture "Land of the Mountain and the Flood," and his choral work "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" show; _b_. 1868.

MACDONALD, marshal of France, born at Sancerre, of Scotch descent, entered the army at the time of the Revolution as a lieutenant, and rapidly rose in rank; served with distinction under Napoleon, especially at Wagram, when he was made Duke of Taranto; supported the Bourbons on their restoration (1765-1840).

MACDONALD, SIR CLAUDE M., British Minister at Peking; served in the army in Egypt in 1882 and 1884, as a diplomatist in Zanzibar in 1887, and on the coast of Africa as commissioner in 1888; was sent to Peking in 1896; _b_. 1852.

MACDONALD, FLORA, a devoted Jacobite who, at the risk of her own life, screened Prince Charles Edward after his defeat at Culloden from his pursuers, and saw him safe off to France, for which she was afterwards confined for a short time in the Tower (1722-1790).

MACDONALD, GEORGE, novelist, born in Huntly; trained for the ministry, but devoted himself to literature; is the author, among other works, of "Robert Falconer," "David Elginbrod," and "Alec Forbes"; his interests are religious, and his views liberal, particularly on religious matters; _b_., 1824.

MACE, THE, the symbol of authority in the House of Commons; is placed on the table when the House is sitting, and is under the table as a rule when the Speaker is not in the chair.

MACEDONIA, an ancient kingdom lying between Thrace and Illyria, the Balkans and the aegean; mostly mountainous, but with some fertile plains; watered by the Strymon, Axius, and Heliacmon Rivers; was noted for its gold and silver, its oil and wine. Founded seven centuries B.C., the monarchy was raised to dignity and power by Archelaus in the 5th century.

Philip II. (359 B.C.) established it yet more firmly; and his son, Alexander the Great, extended its sway over half the world. His empire broke up after his death, and the Romans conquered it in 168 B.C. aegae and Pella were its ancient capitals, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Amphipolis among its towns. After many vicissitudes during the Middle Ages it is now a province of Turkey.

MACEDONIANS, a sect in the early Church who taught that the Holy Ghost was inferior to the Father and the Son, so called from Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, their leader.

MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE ALEXANDER, musical author and composer, born in London; studied at the Royal Academy, and became professor there in 1834; in many operatic works he aimed at restoring old English musical characteristics, and wrote also cantatas "Lenore," "May-Day," &c., and oratorios, of which "John the Baptist" (1873) was the first; but his chief merit lies in his writings on theory (1813-1887).

MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLO, statesman and historian, born in Florence, of an ancient family; was secretary of the Florentine Republic from 1498 to 1512, and during that time conducted its diplomatic affairs with a skill which led to his being sent on a number of foreign emba.s.sies; he was opposed to the restoration of the Medici family, and on the return of it to power was subjected to imprisonment and torture as a conspirator, but was at last set at liberty; he spent the remainder of his life chiefly in literary labours, producing among other works a treatise on government, ent.i.tled "The Prince," the principles of which have established for him a notoriety wide as the civilised world (1469-1530).

MACHIAVELLISM, the doctrine taught by Machiavelli in "The Prince,"

that to preserve the integrity of a State the ruler should not feel himself bound by any scruple such as may suggest itself by considerations of justice and humanity; the State he regards as too precious an inst.i.tution to endanger by scruples of that sort.

M'IVOR, FLORA, the heroine in Scott's "Waverley."

MACK, KARL, Austrian general, born in Franconia; notorious for his military incapacity and defeats; confronted by Napoleon at Ulm in 1805, he surrendered with 28,000 men without striking a blow; for this he was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to death, which was commuted to imprisonment for life, from which he was released at the end of a year (1752-1826).

MACKAY, CHARLES, journalist, novelist, and critic; wrote an autobiography ent.i.tled, "Forty Years' Recollections of Life, Literature, and Public Affairs"; was the father of Eric Mackay, author of "Love-Letters of a Violinist" (1814-1889).

MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, composer, born at Edinburgh; studied in Germany and at the Royal Academy; was teacher and conductor in his native city from 1865 to 1878, lived thereafter in Italy; was made Princ.i.p.al of the Royal Academy of Music in 1887, and knighted in 1895; his opera "Colomba" (1883) first brought him fame; among his works, which are of every kind, his oratorio, "The Rose of Sharon" (1884), is reckoned best; _b_. 1847.

MACKENZIE, SIR GEORGE, eminent Scottish lawyer, born in Dundee; became King's Advocate for Scotland; wrote on law and on other subjects in a style which commended itself to such a critic as Dryden, though by his severe treatment of the Covenanters he earned in Scotland the opprobrious t.i.tle of the "bluidy Mackenzie" (1636-1691).